Why do all dutch people have "van" in their names?

Question

Why do all dutch people have "van" in their names?

Answer 1

It means "from" and is traditionally followed by the name of the area the person (or their ancestors) literally come from. The Dutch do not capitalize the "v".

I am not positive, but the "von" in German denoted nobility or social rank, I don't think this is the case with the Dutch.

Answer 2

as Lisa D stated, it means "from" so it's not unlike the Irish O'  or the Scottish Mc / Mac, or the French D'.

In Icelandic, the girls tend to have surnames ending in -dottir (daughter of), and the boys surnames end in -son (son of).

Answer 3

because they DRIVE everyone mad talking double dutch

Answer 4

Hahaha! It's a high probability!

Answer 5

That was a good question to ask,now I too know the "why"  ;) ;)

Answer 6

Because it means ''from'' it's comparable to ''-son'' in Johnson. When names contain ''van'' it's about cities or villages etc. When there's a z attached to a name it means ''son'', like in Barentsz (Barentszoon)

Answer 7

Because the like to travel with a cara"van".

Joke - now serious:

Van in the name means "from", like Townes Van Zandt comes from Zandt, or Rickey Van Shelton, or Leroy van d**e.

Answer 8

cos minibus sounds stupid.

Answer 9

First, not all dutch people have "van" in their last names.  Take me, I'm Dutch with a Dutch last name, but it has no "van" in there at all.  Starts with an 'H'.

Basically it means 'from'.  So like Peter Vandersdijk basically means "Peter from the dijk".